NORAD Tracks Santa

Whether he's dashing through the snow or the emerald coast sand, military officials at Tyndall Air Force Base have been busy tracking Santa Claus.

For more than fifty years, NORAD officials have called in back up to answer questions about Santa's location.

"We estimate that literally tens of thousands of children will either visit the web-site or call the hot-line to see where Santa is," said Colonel Craig Dye, the Chief of Combat Operations.

It all started by accident; however, after Sears and Roebuck put an ad in the paper with a phone number to reach Santa. The problem? They gave out the wrong number.

"Fortunately, due to a typographical error, they put the phone number for the North American Air Space Defense Command headquarters. As you can imagine, there were several children who called up NORAD and started speaking to a Colonel on the line about where Santa Claus was," said Dye.

NORAD has been tracking Santa ever since.So how do they track Jolly Saint Nick?

"I'll let you in on a little secret. We do utilize Rudolph's red nose. It does let off an IR signature. Our satellites are IR detective satellites so that helps significantly," said Captain Amber Harrell, a Weather Officer in Tyndall.

You can keep watch of Kris Kringle's progress through NORAD's tracking web-site, NORADSANTA.ORG

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